Welcome to the final instalment of our introductory series on A Life In Purgatory!
We've covered the moral dilemma of the Purgatory Challenge (Post 2), but what happens when you successfully fool your rivals with a lie and earn a Hell Card, or convince them of a truth and draw a Heaven Card? This is where the strategic card combat begins. Your hand of cards is your arsenal, and how you play them determines who survives the Reckoning.
The Arsenal of Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell cards represent powerful actions you can take to directly attack opponents or defend yourself from harm.
😇 Heaven Cards: Resilience and Victory
Drawn by being successfully truthful, Heaven cards are the key to long-term survival and victory.
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Defensive Blocks: These cards contain Defence values (Lvls) used to block incoming Hell attacks.
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Healing: Use cards to restore life tokens you’ve lost.
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Buffs: Applied to yourself or others, these cards grant temporary advantages, such as an automatic defence Lvl increase. Remember, Buffs can be played whenever you choose!
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The Holy Grail: The ultimate prize! The Heaven deck contains three fragments of the Holy Grail. If you manage to collect all three, you achieve instant, divine victory!
😈 Hell Cards: Offense and Chaos
Drawn by executing a successful bluff, Hell cards are purely aggressive tools designed to strip the Life Tokens from your opponents.
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Attacks: These cards contain Attack values (Lvls) that you use to target opponents.
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Debuffs: These powerful, disruptive cards come into play immediately when drawn and must be placed face-up on the table, immediately enacting their one-time disruptive effect to the one drawing them.
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Life Drain: Successful, unblocked Hell attacks cause the target to lose one Life Token.
Level-Based Combat: The Exchange
At any point in the game, you can play cards from your hand to attack or defend. This leads to the central combat exchange:
When Player A plays a Lvl 2 Attack card from the Hell deck targeting Player B, Player B must play a Lvl 2 or higher Defence card from the Heaven deck to block it.
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Successful Block: The attack is neutralized. No lives are lost.
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Failed Block: If Player B cannot meet the Level requirement, they lose one Life Token.
⚡ Advanced Rule: Lvl Stacking
For experienced players seeking deeper strategy and higher risk, A Life In Purgatory introduces Lvl Stacking.
Instead of being limited to a single card, you can combine multiple cards to increase a single attack or defense value.
Example: You play a Lvl 1 Attack and a Lvl 2 Attack simultaneously, creating a Lvl 3 Attack.
An exchange of Lvl stacking ends when one player cannot raise the Lvl of their attack or defence any higher. There is no rule forbidding other players from contributing to an attack or defence stack!
High Risk, High Reward: In the Advanced game, if your opponent's block is lower than your attack, the target loses Life Tokens equal to the difference in the Levels! For instance, if a Lvl 4 attack is blocked by a Lvl 1 defense, the opponent loses three life tokens! This rule transforms the simple exchange into a tense, all-in poker match where you must decide how many valuable cards to commit.
The Final Reckoning
The game ends when only one player remains with at least one life token. If the Purgatory Deck runs out, the player with the most remaining Life Tokens is declared the winner.
The choice is yours: Will you be a resilient Priest building towards the Holy Grail, or will you be a chaotic Hellhound, draining the lives of your rivals one successful bluff at a time?
